New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-05-03
SOME NEW NOVELS.
STUDIES or MORAL DISORDERS.
THE CONFESSIONS or CLAuD. Roinance. by Ed
Gan FAwcErn 12mo PIP $685. Tcknor Il Co.

STUDIES OF MORAL DISORDERS
THE ;s or GIAS su ssnss BY
THE STRIKE IN THE B. MILL. A Study Round
Robin senes.I 16mo PIP 900. rckn0r a Co
Mr. Fawcctt enters upon a new field in "Ihe
Confessions OF Claud' Instead OF a social study
Of Ncw-York. we have here a story Of mental and
moral disorder which might have been written
hinder the influence OF some such anatomist as
William Goodwin. 10 is painful and even iurid 10
the last degree: there is not moments heho
upon the all-embracing gloom, and the nearest
approach TO pleasantly is sat1rical account Oh
tho experiences OF an undertaken among the poor
1t Is a story however. OF terrible power; it fascl
mates even when it is most disagreeable 1t has
thrilling descriptions and at times it reaches
a high pitch Of tragic intensity of which few
probably supposed the historian of club quarreis
and evening parties to be capable. Claud is the
son Of q murderer He has seen his gentle and
innocent mother slaughtered in the insane fury
Of her jealous husband and the assassin has paid
Tor his crime on the scaffOld. The boy has been
adopted by rich and somewhat fantastic lady
who changes his name, gives him a fictitious pa
rentage and birthplace, educates him abroad ana
brings him up in wealth, leisure and good
society But he has inherited something OF
evil from his father, mad tendency to jealous
outbreaks which burst from him now and again
with the slightest provocation. The account OF
these storms of temper is presented with deft
use of the doctrine of hercdty. and although MI
Fawcett disclams the fatalistic notion that man
is absolutely the slave of ancestral impulses, he
tnases us feel that Claud is under curse, driving
him to misfort,nes for which he is not wholly
responsible Under his false name he becomes
engaged to lovely and high bred woman. from
whom he conceals his history by persistent lying
When his secret is discovered by rival s,itor and
ho il threatened with exposure, the long prepared
catastrophe occurs Claud murders FOull<e Dorian
In one of his sudden flushes of rage
1t is after the commission of the crime that MI
Fawcett gives us the finest and most original
passage in the story. Claud has friend, a gener-
ous sympathetic delicately orranized young artist
Casimir, with whom he is like an affectionate
brother To this devoted companion ne confesses
what be has done. Hitherto he has been Casl-
Mrs support and guardian. Now their positions
are reversed, and it is Casimir who hides the
blood stains, wards off suspicion, tries to calm
the horror-struclS murderer and rouses him at last
TO fight it out with his SOUL and face the world
courageously. There is something heroic in the
bearing of q poetic sensitive, almost feminine
nature like Casimir's in such tremendous emer-
rency. But the strain is too great. AS Claud
plucks up heart Casimir loses it, and when the
danger of detection has apparently passed the
young artist becomes insane and denounces the
friend no has tried hard TO save. Nothing
could be more unexpected or more thrilling thah
this DEVELOPMENT, which threatens to bring the
murderer tho penalty Of his crime by the means
least Imaginable and hardest to bear. The scene
is probably the strongest thing Mr.. Fawcett has
ever written But the concluding pages are
tame and unsatisfactory. Claud is tried for the
murder but acquitted in default of evidence, for
fagfif
Gramcrcy, to whom also Claud has confessed
marries him without pang, and they hide them
selves in Switzerland. where the murderer seems
upon the whole to thrive in the sunshine Of his
wifes affection, although public opinion hardly
entertains doubt of his guilt. This disposition
OF the hound-for in spite Of all that Mr.. Fawcett
do for him the lying mpostor was hound
will DO generally disapproved
Tie problem of heredity seems to our author
little, and he recurs TO it several times, but
always in a tone of uncertainty. Claud, who
writes these Confessions" In the fist person,
admits that the ancestral faint was no excuse for
him. He had to fight against the curse, but the
weapons for fighting had been given him in alum.
dance. lie was educated. enlightened, cultured
able TO shape his own destiny, and when he dis.
courses upon his sensations after the crime we
cannot evade the impression that his remorse is
more for the SCATTERING of ideal of the improved
civilized man by this sudden plunge into barbar1sn
than for the actual sim "No; either my offence
was rank and smeled to Heaven, or else all pro-
gross and reform. all evolution from beast to man
all rise from savage to humanitarian, all the mighty
lesson taught by science, all the impershabl'
wisdom dug out of ignorance by dead and living
thinkers-all was futility, sham, shadow Clau(
tells us that nc struggled against his temptation
the shame was that he did not struggle to victor,
chit hax-o v1,a oft
however, will discover very little evidence o
struggle in the course of the story. The!
will find Caud nursing without scruple an in
tense hatred Of the whom he finally kills
:Ihey will never find him cultivating any mora
influences as coTectives of his dangerous impulses
and he tells lis that he put aside the idea OF Go
in his student days. For the support of his sou
ho can only fall back upon the evolution Of tn
civilized man, as illustrated in his own person
This seems to be like struggling with sin b.
putting on good clothes and going into society
We do not wonder that it failed.
"1he Strike in the B. Mill is a very impre:
sive statement of the cruel and mschievous chara'
Ter of the war of the Knights Of Labor upon the fire
worl<ingman. A strike is ordered in the B-mi
for q small advance Of wages The owners gran
it, and the associates of Toll las they Gale
in the story thercupon demand in addition that a
."scabs' shall be discharged This is refused, an
the consequence is q long period of suffering an
disorder, ending in riot, boodshed, and the collaTs
Of tho Associates The exposure is directe
against the fatal wrong which is destined to wrec
the Knights of Labor-the interference with I'll
right OF non-organized labor to earn an hone
living. This is conspiracy Of tyranny to whic
tho American worlxingman will certainly not sui
nit and we welcome every clear explanation
the "scab' phase of the labor question as publ
service. The present story puts the case wei
tho incidents are realistic, the sketches of warrior
types of worsmen and agitators are apparent
faithful. and the tone of the book is just an
moderate. At the close we have statement
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